I like St. Mike's but I have come to HATE this video.

I suppose HATE is a strong word... I just got very, very, VERY frustrated while working on it.

First of all here is the video I am talking about:

Secondly, let me explain my sour feelings toward this video...

Here's the thing, there is a new marketing theme (or whatever you want to call it) here at St. Mike's. You might have heard of it, the whole concept runs on the statement "I Like St. Mike's." It's simple, it's true, and it is very inspiring to a vlogger like myself. Why not find out why other students like St. Mike's. When I mentioned this idea to Mallory (she is basically the person in charge of the bloggers and me) she LOVED it and said that if I didn't do it she would. She also decided that this video was going to be heavily marketed by the school. This made me really excited and I couldn't wait to get started. And right then the trouble seemed to start.

Now, I understand when a random girl walks up to you with a camera and says "Would you like to be in the official St. Michael's College video blog?" You would be a little surprised and nervous but so many people were camera shy! They were willing to tell me in words but not on camera. This was rather interesting and strange to me. But then again I am kind of a camera whore so I wouldn't understand the concept of not wanting to be in front of a camera. I did find a few participants here and there and my best luck seemed to be at the activities fair where people were really excited about their clubs and more willing to speak out about there love of SMC! I had to enlist some friends but I tried to avoid that because they show up a lot more in my videos on a regular basis.

Once I got all the footage, which took over a week, I started editing. I asked all the people to say their name, class year, and major before completing the sentence "I like St. Mike's because..." but I made sure I took down their names on my phone so that I had them later for spelling purposes. Well, it seems my phone wanted me to do more work because it deleted half the names and some people did not say their last names on camera which meant i had to search around Facebook and the email directory to find people. I also had to download a new font so it corresponded with the font that the school uses. The first version I got had no numbers or symbols. So, I found something that worked with it, set the video to music and uploaded the video. Then I watched the video again and decided I hated the music. I cut it out and re-uploaded it. Watched it again and realized that the font and names seemed to have disappeared from some of my labels! At this point I near broke a window! I threw like a shoe across my common room and made some sort of exasperated scream, slammed my computer shut and refused to open it again until the next day. After some ice cream and homemade brownies that my friends made I felt better but still decided to leave the video for the night.

The next day I was sent a better version of the font, with symbols and numbers, so I went back through, changed all the fonts again, had to research names and re-watch the clips that mentioned class year and majors all over again. I decided to Skype with my friend Heather who is in England because she is a great critic and she was really excited about the video. We screen shared and she said she was really bothered by the background noise from the activities fair clips and that she thought the ending was corny. I tried to separate all the activities fair clips as much as possible so that they didn't have consecutive background issues. This was done after i explored ways to fix the background noise issue. Unfortunately, although I have final cut on this computer I have not yet taken my classes on it so I can't really use it and that would probably be where I could have fixed that problem. So, I re-uploaded a THIRD time before I went to bed. In the morning I sent the private link to Mallory only to discover that some of the audio was dropped on one clip and I had forgotten a person's major and class year. UGH! Finally, after fixing those two problems I finally was able to upload the current version the FOURTH time I have uploaded!

In this way, I hate this video... or got very, very, VERY, frustrated with it. But in reality, not only because of all the work I put in but simply because of how well it came out I am! I really think this might be my best video yet! I really hope you enjoyed it. You better after I went through hell to make it for you! I am lucky to have such great friends who don't mind random screams and flying shoes... And who make delicious brownies. It very much helped me through this trying time. Its also a good thing I love doing this or I would have given up LONG ago.

:-D Please feel free to ask me any questions about this video or anything you want! Here or on my Formspring or where ever!

How to Balance Vlogging with LIFE

Here is a skill I need to improve. Recognizing opportune vlogging moments and taking advantage of them. As I sit here on in my new suite on the couch in our common room getting ready to edit some videos from the past few days I realize how much I really missed and how much I am going to have to make up for.

Ideally, in my mind anyway, I would have had a video for leaving and my drive up and then a video for moving in and getting settled, a video from our awesome trip to Walmart, Christmas Tree Shop, and Big Lots (with a stop at Starbucks) a video of the suite while we were decorating and so on. I think I need to come to terms with the fact that I just cannot vlog about everything! Something that is actually very difficult for me. I just love Saint Mike's and I love sharing as much as I can with as many people as possible. It is going to be a fast hitting reality that I am simply not capable of constantly vlogging and that I am not going to be able to capture everything.

This realization has led me to a thought, an idea for some future vlogs and maybe a supplemental blog posts. First of all, the whole reason I brought up the concept of a vlog to Mallory is because I can't handle blogs and they don't hold my interest, and yet here I am blogging instead of vlogging. But anyway! My idea. I think that I will do my, as I like to call them "SHAYCARL" style vlogs where you come along with me for the ride, plus my IWSFMITM (interviews with someone far more interesting than myself) and all other vlogs but if I don't manage to get a lot of footage from things I do, I think I am going to start doing more of classic vlog style where I sit down and talk to the camera. And that is my realization for the week.

Now onto the good stuff. My vlogs for this week: I did post two videos about coming back and my first night and day back check them out here.

Coming back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNojOoj1UKI

First Night and Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iff1M8rjcGY

Thats all for now. Hopefully I will have a tour of our suite made soon! I have auditions tonight so wish me luck! I'll let you know how it goes!

50 facts about St. Mikes in 4... ermm 5 Minutes

This blog is about this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGTLWWht3T4

OH MY GOODNESS!

Making this video watch much more difficult than I expected! But I had so much help! I sent out one email and soon I was getting facts from left and right from all sorts of different departments! It was great. Even over the summer professors were so willing to help out I am so grateful to everyone who contributed.

Like I said in the beginning of the video, I was inspired to make this video by the vlogbrothers on youtube. They are a pair of my favorite vloggers ever and I was so excited to make a video inspired by them. If you don’t have a youtube account you should get one and if you do have a youtube account you should not only subscribe to me but to them as well! Youtube has so much to offer! It is way more than funny videos! It is a world of user generated amazing content that can be addicting and I love it.

The plan was for this video to be only 4 minutes, but I failed. The facts were long and seemed to be tongue twisters. Part of my inability to speak quickly and clearly may have been due to the fact that I filmed this video from about 11:30 pm to 1:30 am! I had some major trouble with the Giants fact, I think it took me about 45 minutes to get it right!

So I decided to list all the facts here so you can read them over if you want! I also included tons of links so if a fact intrigued you, you can now get more information about it. If there isn’t a link and you want to learn more just comment on this or on the video and I will get back to you with information or a place where you can go!

Here are the 50 facts:

1. 31 majors. 37 minors.

2. 28 intramural teams.

3. 21 varsity teams

4. 100% of students at St. Michael's college are offered on campus housing for all four years (more info here http://smcvt.edu/studentlife/residential/default.asp)

5. The student body represents 38 states and 13 countries.

6. SMC was founded in 1904

7. That year 34 boys enrolled from ages 10 to 22.

8. The tuition was $105

9. SMC was all male until 1970

10. The class of 2013 entered with a 50:50 ration for male to female students.

11. Today there are around 2000 undergraduate students.

12. There is a 12:1 student to faculty ratio.

13. There are 151 full time faculty members.

14. St. Mike's Fire adn rescue responds to emergencies both on and off campus.

15. They are also 1 of only 2 squads in New England run entirely by students (More info about them here: http://www2.smcvt.edu/firerescue/)

16. Every Friday and Saturday night from 11pm to 1 am free food is served on the freshman quad.

17. St. Michael's College is the only Edmundite college in the world. (more about the Edmundites here: http://www.smcvt.edu/about/facts/edmundite.asp)

18. Over 70% of students participate in a MOVE activity by the time they graduate.

19. Only at St. Michael's college can you pay $30 for a season pass to Smugglers Notch Mountain (http://www.smcvt.edu/smuggs/default.asp)

20. For $30 you can also see any show that comes through the Flynn center for the arts in Burlington. (http://www.smcvt.edu/culturalpass/)

21. In a class offered called “Canadian National Politics” you get to visit Ottawa and meet with members of Canadian Parliament.

22. Every winter and spring break over 100 students take part in an extended service experience. From Immoaklee Florida, to Kanab, Utah. (http://www.smcvt.edu/move/programs/extended.asp)

23. You have the same mail box number for all 4 years.

24. For just $4 dollars you can wash and dry your laundry without leaving your housing.

25. 100% of student athletes graduate in 4 years.

26. Burlington the city closest to St. Mikes was named the healthiest city in the US by the Center for Disease Control.

27. Your student ID also known as your knight card student id not only gets you into the dining hall it also acts as a debit card and a bus pass making it easy to get to downtown Burlington and have a great meal! (http://www.smcvt.edu/knightcard/default.asp)

28. Every Student must take a first year seminar but the topics vary greatly from Peace & Justice to Solving Environmental Problems and even Politics of Food.

29. 95% of students receive need-based financial aid.

30. Our tennis courts are purple because our colors are Purple and Gold!

31. Environmental Studies is the newest major on campus

32. Computer Science major - In the past two years (May 2009 and 2010) we’ve had 100% job placement or grad school placement of our grads. This is impressive given that the economy has been terrible. (http://www.smcvt.edu/academics/computerscience/)

33. The library is open until 1:00 am on weeknights making the library open about 105 hours a week.

34. The library archives include medieval manuscripts and saints’ relics.

35. English major Jamie Gorton's marriage proposal to his girlfriend at the end of his speech at graduation 2010 went was very popular right here on YouTube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB1vjOPa2zY

36. Saint Michael’s was once the pre-season training site for the New York Giants of the National Football League. From the late 1950’s to the early 1960’s, the then-World Champion Giants used to stay on campus and practice on our 5,000–seat football field, located on what is now the 300’s Field. Their locker room was in the basement of Alumni Hall. The players were very visible in those days, spending their free time in downtown Burlington and Winooski, and surrounding areas, visiting hospitals, etc. To this day, there is a very strong fan base for the Giants here in Chittenden County, as a direct result of having the team here during that time.

37. Saint Michael's College is one of the few private colleges in the nation to have a professional equity theatre in residence on campus. (http://academics.smcvt.edu/playhouse/)

38. The 1999 men’s hockey team won our school’s only national championship and the head coach and captain from that team now work for Saint Michael's College. That says something about our school’s pride and personality.

39. Rugby is our most popular club sport.

40. A St. Mike’s professor has been teaching an all online course for the Applied Linguistics Department for 10 years and has had students from 5 continents (all except Australia and Antarctica). It is famous among the professionals in the field but it’s not well-known on campus. (http://catalog.smcvt.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=7&ent_oid=219&bc=1)

41. The Purple Knight became the College’s official mascot in 1947, selected by a balloting of the student body. Prior to that time, Saint Michael’s athletic teams were known by a number of different nicknames – predominantly The Michaelmen or The Hilltoppers.

42. Member of the class of 2012, John Bock, broke the world record for the longest consecutive play in a first person shooter game on X-Box live while raising money for cancer research by playing Call of Duty for 50 hours straight! (Here is an article about it http://journalism.smcvt.edu/echo/3.9.10/Features/VideoGameRecord_McDonnell.html)

43. U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy ’61 competed with the riflery athletes while at Saint Michael’s.

44. Additionally the riflery athletes used to call themselves Nimrods. Meaning – once upon a time, you could have walked up to Pat Leahy and called him a nimrod, and he would have thanked you for the compliment…

45. You can rent snowshoes anytime from Wilderness during the winter! (Here is more info about the Wilderness program: http://www.smcvt.edu/wilderness/)

46. An Alumni survey revealed that FIVE YEARS after graduation, of those who were ALREADY married, about 40% had married either someone who they met directly at SMC or someone who they met through someone at SMC. (my parents would count in that category…)

47. Bennie Borgmann, a member of the Original Boston Celtics who is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, coached basketball at Saint Michael’s in the late 1940’s.

48. The Fine Arts Department has Theatre majors who sing, dance, weld, stage manage, design, act, direct, write original plays, build flats, sew costumes, hang lights, study dramatic literature, and delve into theatre history all at the same time!

49. There is a bat that lives in the theatre on campus. He has been known to make appearance during performances but rarely shows up during rehearsals and he has never caused harm to anyone but has drawn attention from performances!

50. Students and alumni agree that there are a number of haunted buildings and rooms on campus and although this fact cannot be proven indefinitely. Honest to God my light turned out all on its own when I was filming this fact!)

It is tiring just looking at that list! Well that is all I really have to say about that! Keep watching my videos! Please rate comment and subscribe etc! I do hope you are having an enjoyable summer!